Washington approved the first tranche of military sales to Taiwan since US President Donald Trump took office, raising tensions with Beijing that had only recently eased over the superpowers’ trade war.
The $330 million package of aircraft parts comes with China unveiling a raft of new, advanced defense equipment, including a mammoth new aircraft carrier and trials of an amphibious “drone carrier”.
Despite the impressive new hardware, China’s military appears to be falling short in other ways, though: An intensifying purge of several top commanders, ostensibly over widespread corruption, has raised questions over the armed forces’ capabilities. Yet, as a Taiwanese official admitted to the Financial Times, “the outcome of these purges is still completely unclear.”